WASHINGTON — CUNA plans wide distribution of its analysis of the results of a Government Accountability Office report requested by then-Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), which takes the study of the favorable tax treatment of the banking industry one step further.

It would take approximately 313 years for the credit union tax-exemption of an estimated $1.4 billion a year, as figured by Treasury, to equal the $438 billion (2006 dollars) the federal government spent cleaning up after the failure of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. Based on the GAO study, CUNA Chief Economist Bill Hampel stated, "bank-specific tax breaks are between $1.3 and $1.9 billion per year" over and above normal business tax breaks.

"It will be widely distributed on the Hill," CUNA Senior Vice President of Legislative Affairs John Magill said of their analysis, including at Hike the Hills and among key committee leaders and members.